14th
Friday, March 12, 2010
4:26 PM
I should have wrote this yesterday but I didn't think of doing so until now.

Yesterday I was on the bus going back to school with my friends. One of my friends were talking about how she hadn't been to Korea for a long time so she hadn't experienced any of those recent phenomenons (i.e Incheon Airport train, KTX bullet train, increased distribution of foreigners) and we were having a talk about the country. This man who was standing beside us was listening in and casually asked which country we were talking about.

I yelled out Korea of course and he started off by saying how he would love to visit the country because he loves Korean food. He said he'd been to Japan and China but never Korea. This guy was probably in his mid fourties, comparable with my Dad, I think. We talked through the entire bus ride and he told us a little bit about his life story which I found very interesting. He grew up in Toronto and his original plan when he was younger (20s) was to actually become an English teacher in Pusan, South Korea. He mentioned how he was really excited and looking forward to going but unfortunately he was unable to because of visa and immigration complications, and the fact that he didn't have a university degree which is apparently required.

I can't really imagine how disappointing that must be... to have a possibly important career prospect shot down because of your education level -- even if you are clearly qualified. It makes me think about how important education really is in this life but also how commonplace it is. He said that he would've been able to go to Korea anyways and get a job "under the table" so to speak, but he didn't want to do anything illegal. I really admired that and the fact that now he seems like he's pretty content with his life -- despite the outcome of his potential career. I should have asked him what he does now but I'm sure he's happy since he mentioned he has a wife and kids now.

This kind of got me thinking about university and why I'm here. I don't know what I'm going to major in next year (deadline ticking!) and I don't know where I'm going to stay (deadline ticking, one again!). But I think even if you have a clear vision of what you want, it won't always happen (i.e hello goodbye med school!)... but it's still worth trying -- who knows, you might end up in something completely unrelated but I just hope that wherever I end up I'm happy with it...

posted by Star @ 4:26 PM

1 Comments:


Blogger Jenn said...
This guy didn't want the teaching job in Korea bad enough. Case Closed.

Also, I hope he's doing something he likes too.
March 12, 2010 at 10:55 PM  

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